Restoring Vintage Jewelry

A few years ago, vintage jewelry was much easier to find in places like thrift stores and much less expensive. Now what I can find for a reasonable price usually has some flaws. I get past that by restoring the pieces.

• The worn finishes can be touched up with gold or silver nail polish.
• I can brighten up pieces missing small rhinestones by using glitter glue, then applying silver glitter and removing the excess.
• You can pry out old rhinestones (of the right size) from rhinestone buttons to replace larger missing stones in jewelry. Just glue in with superglue.
• You can also replace broken pin backs with well-placed safety pins or pin backs from the craft store.
• And, of course, you can fix broken links by using a pair of pliers!

Source: me

By pam munro from Los Angeles, CA